


Back in August

by lil_bonsai



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Childhood Memories, M/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:41:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23651767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lil_bonsai/pseuds/lil_bonsai
Summary: Five years later, Tooru looks upon the image that has been locked in time.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru





	Back in August

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the song "Hachigatsu no Kaze" by 40mP. It's such a lovely song, and a lovely pair of friends deserves a lovely song.

A familiar melody accompanied his heartbeat as his eyes fell upon the tree.

It must have been five years since Tooru sat under that tree, weeping.

Yeah. It had been exactly five years, and as if today was a perfect cut-out from that day, the sun stood low on the horizon and warmed everything its light touched.

Back then, Tooru had been shielding himself from this very light, stubborn and hurt enough to refuse sun’s warmth. It had come to no one’s surprise that this was his reaction to a mere «no» when he asked for candy, so naturally his parents had let him off to sulk. Although Tooru could look back with a fond smile today, there was no denying a child’s pain no matter its severity.

Under the shadows cast by the tree that had stood there since the beginning of time, Tooru weeped over the candy he had been denied ever so disrespectfully. Butterflies came and went as he tried to reach for them with tear-stained fingers, their retreat adding tenfold to the intensity of his innocent misery.

Caught up in his own self-pity, Tooru hadn’t noticed the stranger who had intended to pass by. How long could this boy have been standing there; With a spotless guitar that hung around his shoulder? To this day, Tooru still couldn’t tell.

The boy had awkwardly tried asking what was wrong but of course Tooru wouldn’t let up that easily, as stubborn as he was. In fact, Tooru still hadn’t registered a second presence. That was, until a sweet chord rung through the air like a breeze.

Perhaps it’s true what they say about music being like magic. There was no other way to explain the wight lifted from Tooru’s shoulders and before he knew it, he and the spiky-haired boy, who seemed to be of the same age, were filling the air with playful melodies.

They say music is is timeless.

A secret tradition emerged from habit after Tooru had started going to the tree more frequently, hoping to meet the boy underneath it. And day after day in the late summer warmth, Tooru would find him with a new melody at strings. Together, they sang the lonely tree back to life accompanied by the wildlife that existed in an ordinary neighborhood.

It was their secret August tradition.

Yet, before August could even end, Tooru had seen cardboard boxes filling up in his home.

_Are you selling my toys!?_

_We’re not selling them, sweetie, don’t you worry._

Tooru had no concept of what it meant to «move out» and had decided that mom and dad were trying to sell his toys without his consent. After having thrown a fit, Tooru grabbed his green stuffed alien and continued his post-fit outside, underneath the tree.

The sun shone like it always did. It wasn’t going anywhere.

But mom grabbed a wailing Tooru’s arm so his stuffed alien fell to the ground at 6 PM, as the sun was starting its descent.

Through the window in the back of the car, it was bitter to see the boy with the guitar, heading toward the tree. Tooru shouted futilely at him to hear what new song the boy had come up with. Of course it didn’t work.

For a long time following, the August breezes sung with a hint of emptiness in its voice.

Nowadays the tree seemed to have grown even taller. Tooru, now 15, had walked along the pavement that was doused in sunlight, memories and childhood emotions. It was warm, like Augusts go. As the breeze rustled in the grass, Tooru smiled nostalgically upon the voice that harmonized along. The voice had become a bit deeper. From the other side of the tree, Tooru saw a left hand moving up and down along a fretboard, and the right knee of a pair of legs that sat crossed. On the guitar case was a tiny, green charm. Tooru chuckled. Alien-shaped.

Caught up in his music, the boy hadn’t noticed Tooru standing there until Tooru had commented that his music seemed much more original nowadays. The boy with the guitar only looked at him before cracking a smile that only his inner child could provide.

A snapshot of time was framed in that very sunset as they gave life to the neighborhood that always seemed so silent, letting history repeat itself for as long as they wanted. Once again, they framed their voices and childhood in this very time and place, and let it remain till September.


End file.
